The information-communication industry is currently undergoing tremendous change from the constant evolution of new technologies and changing market conditions. As a result, information service providers such as telephone, cable, wireless carriers, Internet Service Providers and utility companies all have the need to rapidly deploy new systems and system elements and alter their existing management systems to accommodate evolving business and network requirements. These requirements include the ability to integrate existing network equipment and systems with new elements and applications, customize existing systems and applications, and scale systems to accommodate growing networks and traffic volumes.
Network management and operations become crucial to the competitiveness of communication companies, utilities, banks and other companies operating Wide Area Networks (WANs) of computer devices and other network types and devices including SONET, Wireline, Mobile etc. Many companies currently use customized “legacy” network management systems (NMSs) and operations support systems (OSSs) that are based on older technologies, which poorly integrate disparate network elements and associated Element Management Systems (EMSs). Still others use EMSs, NMSs and OSSs that are not scalable, cannot be easily interfaced with disparate network elements, and require costly programming while offering limited features and flexibility.
The assignee of the present invention currently produces a Framework VSM which is operationally and network focused and is primarily used in the development of EMS's and NMS's sold under the trademark NetExpert®. NetExpert is an object-oriented system that is comprised of a set of integrated software modules and graphical user interface (GUI) development tools that permit the creation and deployment of network management and operations support solutions. Each element type, device, device component, and even database may be managed as a separate “object.” However, NetExpert, like other EMS/NMSs/OSSs on the market today, still may require specific customization for each managed object.
Each element type, device, and as well as other managed objects requires a separate set of rules to be tailored to the nature of the object, its specific hardware and software, and the business practices of the company. Each rule set provides the details for the management of the particular object to which the rules are directed. NetExpert's Fourth Generation Language (4GL) editors permit this customization to be performed by subject matter experts (SMEs). They use their knowledge to create simple sets of rules such as “if-then” statements to manage their Network Elements, EMs or NMSs, rather than requiring skilled programmers to integrate devices and other elements with additional computer software code such as C and/or C++. However, rule-set development is labor and time intensive, as well as subject to human error and expense.
EMS/NMSs can manage a wide range of communications and computer devices, from switches, DCS, SONET ADM's, routers, testing devices, video units, banking ATM machines, air traffic control systems, and for example, other computerized devices, databases and objects. OSSs provide a broader layer of functionality to directly support the daily operation of the network, such as order negotiation, order processing, line assignment, line testing and billing. EMS/NMSs can be a component of a larger OSS system. However, for the sake of simplicity, but not limitation, the communication switching network context will be used throughout this application.
Each device, for example a switch, has available or responds to certain information relating to its operation, such as performance, fault, configuration, and inventory. For each device, the correlation of operational functions with service activation information is a labor intensive effort that is typically performed by a skilled programmer. If an equipment provider develops and markets a new switch, typically a skilled programmer has to identify and analyze all of the service activation information for that switch. The programmer then correlates that information with all of the functionalities that a customer may desire to use in connection with that switch, and then modifies its existing EMS/NMS/OSS program code to manage that switch.
The present assignee's network management and operations support framework, NetExpert, currently uses a high level language to permit non-programmers to write instructions, referred to as rule sets, to manage or route information within NetExpert, between NetExpert systems, or between NetExpert and other programs and functions, without the cost and complexity of other EMS/NMSs/OSSs. For example, if a particular service activation is sent to the switch, one customer may want to activate the service with alarms generated, while a second customer may only want to have alarms disable prior to testing then have alarms activated at a later time. Even with NetExpert, these rules have to be entered through 4GL editors. Although SMEs have better knowledge of the business practices of the customer, and the rules can be more easily crafted with NetExpert, the time, cost and complexity of the EMS/NMS/OSS development and maintenance is still significant.
While this invention relates to any SMS/NMS/EMS/OSS, it will be described in reference to the NetExpert system to provide a concrete example of a SMS/NMS/EMS/OSS application.
Established and new service providers alike are struggling to manage the scale and diversity of their network elements. IP/data services and other telecommunications networks can involve a million or more SNMP-enabled elements—ATM switches, routers, bridges, voice-mail systems, gateways, modems, and set-top boxes as well as SONET, DCS's, circuit based and mobile switches. Until now, service providers haven't had an effective system for mapping services to this diverse element base. The traditional service activation architecture is to build rules or algorithms that perform the activation at the element level. These algorithms are typically written in a programming language and compiled into a service activation application. The hard-coding of rules in service activation system requires tremendous resources for the development and support of EMSs/NMSs and OSSs and is inefficient in a rapidly changing communications environment. The higher the level of the TMN business model, the more human effort and cost is likely to be incurred in delivering the functionally required by the end user.
SMS/NMS/EMS/OSS must provide to the user: system scalability, which is the ability to continually describe and initiate existing and new network services across scalable networks, as well as flexibility to incorporate business rules down to location/device level granularity in a generic manner, which is the ability to support a wide range of customer network services, while maintaining simplicity, efficiency and low cost.
Consequently, what is needed is an efficient service activation system that reduces overhead demands on network management system resources. The service activation method should also be adaptable enough to configure specific network services during runtime with no downtime and readily extendable to a variety of vendor devices or management protocols without undue administrative or maintenance effort.